Investment research firm Zacks has upgraded its stock rating of Interactive Intelligence (Nasdaq: ININ), a provider of business VoIP services, from "neutral" to "outperform," reflecting the firm's anticipated strong financial performance in 2013.

Zacks joins Craig Hallum and Northland Securities in upgrading their stock ratings of the VoIP provider, according to a report on the Daily Political website.

The company's stock has surged 18 percent since the beginning of the year, based primarily on the firm's preliminary results revealed earlier this month.

Interactive Intelligence said it expects total VoIP orders to increase 119 percent in the fourth quarter of 2012 compared with the same quarter in 2011, and total orders for all of 2012 to increase 48 percent compared with 2011.

The firm expects its cloud-based VoIP orders to quadruple in the fourth quarter of 2012 year-over-year, and its cloud-based orders to more than double for the full year.

The VoIP provider anticipates revenues of between $70 million and $72 million in the fourth quarter, up 21 percent to 24 percent year-over-year, and between $237 million and $239 million for all of 2012, up 13 percent to 14 percent over 2011.

In addition, the company said it expects 2013 revenues to be in the range of $285 million to $290 million, with a non-GAAP operating margin of 3 percent to 5 percent.

"The business showed excellent growth across the board, with our fourth-quarter performance driven by sales momentum for both our cloud and premises-based offerings as we continue to gain share at the high end of the contact center market. We received an unprecedented 20 orders of over $1 million in the fourth quarter involving some of the largest companies in the world," commented Donald Brown, the firm's CEO.

In its latest order, Interactive Intelligence signed a contract with T-Mobile Austria to deploy a contact center to support the company's 500 agents at two sites. The contact center is expected to be ready this summer.

The business VoIP provider is obviously doing something right. Its cloud-based product is fueling is rapid growth and strong financials. And Brown has pledged to accelerate the firm's pace of innovation this year, so stay tuned for the company's final 2012 results, set for release on Feb. 4.

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